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User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/Donkey Kong Country Review (GBA)
What's up my Shreks, it's me again. It's time for another review of a GBA remake of one of my favorite SNES games : Donkey Kong Country for GBA. I have no development history to talk about, so let's begin right away. Story Exactly the same as the original, but more detailed because of the addition of an intro cutscene and an end cutscene. One day, Donkey Kong entrusts his best friend Diddy Kong with guarding his prized banana hoard. However, reptiles known as the Kremlings break into DK's hoard, steal it, and trap Diddy in a barrel. DK's grandfather, Cranky Kong, wakes DK up from a nap he's taking and tells him to check his hoard. DK then finds out his hoard was stolen by the Kremlings. Angry, DK vows to defeat the threat and get back his bananas. After getting through the game and beating King K. Rool, the commander of the Kremling army, DK, Diddy, Cranky, and the rest of the Kong family celebrate. Suddenly, K. Rool comes back and tells the apes to leave his ship, or else he'll destroy DK island. Once the Kongs leave, K. Rool says he'll have revenge, setting up the plot of the second game. In fact, Cranky even snarkily comments that this seems like a "cheap stunt" for "setting up the sequel." The story worked fine enough on its own in the SNES version, but these new additions are a nice touch. Graphics Like every other GBA remake I've talked about in the past week and a half, this game's graphics have been unfairly criticized. Though not as good as the SNES graphics, the GBA remake has nice visuals (especially by the standards of the system it's on) that are easy on the eyes. Like I just mentioned, however, the GBA version is clearly graphically inferior to the SNES version because of the oversaturated colors, low-resolution sprites, and less detailed environments. Soundtrack Many other people seem to hate on the GBA version's soundtrack, but I personally think it's... alright. Despite the low-quality samples, the music still sounds good by system standards. Of course, the SNES soundtrack is vastly superior because of its higher-quality instrumentation. Gameplay The gameplay is preserved almost one-to-one from the SNES version, at least level design-wise. The levels are just as well-designed as the original's.... with some exceptions, because of an issue with the game. The controls feel a slight bit slipperier than the SNES control. This may not sound like a big deal, but believe me when I say that it makes a huge difference on some of the trickier levels in the game. This only really effects a select few stages. Levels that focus more on precision platforming or those containing moving platforms seem to have fared the worst. Levels like Millstone Mayhem, Loopy Lights, Blackout Basement, Tanked-Up Trouble, and especially Elevator Antics have seen a drop in quality because of the slightly gimped control. It isn't the worst thing ever, because these levels are still playable, but it is noticable enough to be a mild annoyance. Overall, the gameplay is still fairly solid. Difficulty This game is a slight (and I mean very slight) smidgen harder than the SNES version because of the slightly worse control. Despite this, the game still remains fair and forgiving overall.... minus the hitboxes. They work fine for the most part, and it could just be me, but I swear the hitboxes of killable enemies and platforms have been narrowed, and the Zingers' hitboxes were enlarged. One of the most egrigious issues resulting from this regards moving platforms - I found myself falling straight through the edges of platforms more often than I would have liked. This mostly effects Elevator Antics and Tanked-Up Trouble, which have become the two hardest and most infuriating levels in the whole game. One instance I remember in particular was at the end of Tanked-Up Trouble. I barely made it to the end of the level, and was right at the final jump up to the exit. When I jumped for it, instead of landing on it like I would in the SNES version, the game just decided "nope" and I fell right through, making me have to start from the checkpoint again. Instances like this are isolated incidents, not affecting every stage, so this is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but God damn was it frustrating. The bosses, on the other hand, have seen some improvements. In the SNES version, all the bosses except the final one were piss easy. In the GBA version, a few changes were made to make the bosses a bit harder, like having Queen B. spawn King Zing-esque protective formations of Zingers you have to take out, and Dumb Drum requiring you to hit it with a TNT barrel after every wave of enemies instead of just having to avoid getting crushed by it. This doesn't make them that much harder, but it is a step in the right direction. Conclusion All-in-all, Donkey Kong Country for GBA is a good game that recreates the SNES original fairly faithfully for a handheld system. However, as good as it is, it pales in comparison to the SNES version. While flawed, DKC1 for GBA is a good remake that I would recommend alongside the SNES version if you own the original, or if you want to play DKC1 and only own (or prefer) portable consoles. So there we go, the GBA remakes of four of my favorite 2D platformers. I do own DKC3 for GBA as well, but I'm probably going to focus elsewhere now for the sake of variety. Like I've said in each of these past few reviews, I have all three Crash Bandicoot games, Pac-Man World, and have yet to finish Spyro 1 and 2 on the PS1, and I still have to play Yoshi's Island on the SNES. I don't know which I want to do first, but whatever order I end up beating them all in, I'll be sure to review each one as soon as possible. My next post might be a review of one of those, or something entirely different. Whatever the case, see you all later. Category:Blog posts